ABSTRACT
In environmental remediation, the only consistent factor is the lack of certainty. The only “certain” way to address a contaminated site is to completely remove the contaminated soil and groundwater, or to chemically destroy the contaminants in situ, leaving the site in theoretically the condition it was in before the release happened. Even that requires assessing the site to an exhaustive degree. This sort of undertaking is generally not physically or economically feasible even for the most lavishly funded Superfund projects—imagine the chaos that would result from the digging up of roads and the interruption of water and sewer services to get at soils contaminated by releases that had migrated beneath roadways. Remediation is a succession of compromises, a complex calculus of risk management and mitigation where the concentration, toxicity, mobility, and location of contaminants is weighed against the practicality and cost-effectiveness of proposed remedies and the sensitivity of receptors such as human beings or ecological resources.
In the current regulatory and economic climate, remediation is usually limited to the most cost-effective measure that applicable regulations will allow.
